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Oct. 12 — Whether applicants can do the job should be the focus of pre-employment screening
testing, rather than how they’ll get it done, according to Aaron Konopasky, senior
attorney adviser for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Modern technology is simplifying the job search process, making it increasingly easy
to apply for hundreds of positions in a very short amount of time. As a result, many
employers are facing much larger applicant pools, and are turning more to skills assessments
to quickly identify the most qualified candidates.

Employers should make sure these assessments, whether purchased from vendors or developed
in-house, are designed so that all applicants can demonstrate the ability to do the
job if they have it, Konopasky told Bloomberg BNA Oct. 7. This will help employers
stay compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and others, he said.

“As a preventative measure employers should try to formulate their qualification standards
and assessments in a way that isn’t too focused on particular physical movements,”
Konopasky said.

“It is possible to make the test too specific on a physical level,” Konopasky said,
“you can end up constructing a model of a particular type of worker rather than of
the job itself, which could cause ADA compliance issues.”

Test the Test

This is where it may be important to formally validate the assessment itself, said
Eric Dunleavy, an industrial and organizational psychologist at DCI Consulting Group.

“When used properly, the results of these tests often correlate with performance and
other important work outcomes,” Dunleavy told Bloomberg BNA Sept. 30. In order to
effectively use these assessments, an employer may want to verify via research that
its chosen assessment is relevant to the position of interest. Validation research
is one way to justify subgroup differences on test results should they exist, he said.

“The research literature shows us that these types of skills and abilities assessments
often produce differences in favor of non-minorities,” Dunleavy said, “and there are
a variety of theories explaining this phenomenon.”
However, it can be permissible to have adverse impact if tests are demonstrated to
be job related, he said, “and this is why it may be important for employers to validate
the inferences made from their selection procedures. Test users should talk to their
legal representation on this issue.”

Testing Increases Compliance

Human resources departments face increasing pressure to conduct the hiring process
in a standard way that is both compliant and efficient, Eric Friedman told Bloomberg
BNA Oct. 5. Using these tests will reduce exposure to HR legal risks and help employers
hire more accurately, said Friedman, founder and CEO of eSkill, a Chelmsford, Mass.-based
company that sells customizable software for skills testing. “Using a test that is
tailored to match a job’s requirements, as determined by a job analysis, is more compliant
than using an off-the-shelf test or not using a test at all,” he said.

“As for determining what test scores are objectively good and meaningful, we suggest
giving your new assessment to employees whose relevant knowledge and skill you know.
Their scores, and feedback on the selected test questions, are the most valid ways
to confirm whether the test is appropriate and obtain scores to serve as a benchmark.”
Friedman said.

However, the type of test best suited for an employer’s needs will vary, according
to Jeff Luttrell, director of the North Carolina Society for Human Resource Management
state council.

Larger companies likely have the in-house resources to create their own exams, Luttrell
said, but he says small and mid-size companies shouldn’t attempt this. “Because there
are a lot of unknowns when developing an exam it’s important for these employers to
purchase one that has been verified,”
Luttrell told Bloomberg BNA Oct. 7.

Successful Testing Tips

Whether tests were created in-house or purchased from a vendor, employers should keep
several things in mind to screen applicants well and avoid compliance issues:

1. Test for the End, Not the Means.

“In the office world, there are almost always several different ways to accomplish
a task,”
said Luttrell. “What’s important is not the way the applicant did the task, it’s the
end result.” This also creates flexibility for applicants with disabilities, said
Konopasky. These candidates might need to prove they can do the job in a different
way than other applicants, and employers would have to make reasonable accommodations
for them, he said. Dunleavy said employers should avoid getting overly specific and
shouldn’t try to test for all skills used on a job. “Organizations should think about
how to identify the most important skills and abilities and focus on those in the
hiring process,” he said.

2. Do a Job Analysis.

“The most important thing for employers to do is ensure that the test is job-related
and consistent with business necessity” and to conduct an analysis to determine which
skills are essential for successfully performing a job, said Konopasky. While job
analyses are often not legally required, they enable employers to understand the job
and to potentially cater the hiring process to those things the analysis tells them
are important, Dunleavy said, and help ensure that their tests don’t ignore any important
skills or focus on those that are not important.

3. Look Behind the Advertising.

When an employer is buying off-the-shelf assessments, it’s important to find out exactly
what the test is trying to capture, said Carol Miaskoff, acting associate legal counsel
for EEOC. “Because companies are trying to sell to a wide audience, the descriptions
of what a product tests for can be very abstract,” Miaskoff said. “Employers looking
to purchase these tests shouldn’t just accept the assertion from the company, but
should ask questions and look closely at the tests themselves.”

4. Put a Short Test Up Front.

“This signifies to applicants that you are a serious employer, and lets them know
exactly what skills you want them to have,” said Friedman. This also allows qualified
applicants to “cut the line”
and move forward to a second stage of the application more quickly, because unqualified
candidates are eliminated early on, he said. This is a great way to make the process
faster and friendlier for the potential employee, Friedman noted.

5. Distribute Test Internally First.

“Giving the assessment to employees who you know have the knowledge and skills you’re
looking for is the most dependable way to determine whether the questions are relevant
and appropriate for the position,” Friedman said, and this tactic will also allow
employers to establish a baseline.

6. Add a Personality Measure.

“Human performance is complicated, so having a variety of different assessments in
your hiring process could be very valuable,” Dunleavy said. “As an example, in addition
to a skills assessment, an employer could consider adding some type of personality
assessment to the hiring process, because these often predict outcomes such as teamwork,
engagement and commitment, and typically do not produce the subgroup differences that
other assessments do.” While most industries use some sort of assessment, entry-level
jobs tend to use more skills-based tests, while more selective positions skip that
step and focus on more behavioral and cognitive assessments, Luttrell said. “Testing
for behaviors as opposed to skills helps employers determine whether an applicant
is a good fit for the company culture,” he said.

7. Use Other Data Sources.

“Testing is just one piece of the puzzle, not the puzzle itself,” said Luttrell. “Employers
should use two or three sources of data when making hiring decisions.” Sources often
include interviews, references and background experience in addition to a skills based
test, Luttrell said. “Using these other sources means employers are reviewing an entire
package as opposed to just a test result,”
he added.

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